Charlotte Cornelia Isbell Blake The story of the first African-American Seventhday Adventist to become a licensed physician Dr. Charlotte (Lottie) Cornelia Isbell Blake served the church as a pioneering physician, hospital administrator, medical missionary, and teacher. The following story was adapted from a longer article in the online Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists (ESDA) at encyclopedia. adventist.org.
Early life
Ella Louise Smith Simmons is a general vice president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Lottie Isbell was born on June 10, 1876, to Thomas and Frances (Fannie) Isbell in Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.1 She was born in the home of her maternal grandfather, John Charles Diuguid who owned a blacksmith shop and the property adjacent to the Helm House where General Robert E. Lee surrendered to end the US Civil War.2 Lottie was the first of eleven children. Six of her siblings died in infancy: Sarah E., Charles, Faith, Hope, Ethel, and Gertrude E. Two of the four who survived into adulthood, Mamie Louise and Raymond David, did not reach age 30. The other two, Thomas Oscar and Veola Garry (Cox), like Lottie, experienced long lives.3 In pursuit of better economic opportunities and to escape the harsh challenges of post–Civil War violence and racial prejudice, the Isbells relocated to Columbus, Ohio, when Lottie was three years old. There Thomas worked as a carpenter, and Fannie worked as a seamstress while caring for their home and growing family.
Lottie Isbell, seated at center, American Medical Missionary College (AMMC) class of 1902 in Battle Creek Sanitarium Laboratory (Photo courtesy of Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loma Linda University)
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Lottie Isbell, American Medical Missionary College (AMMC) class of 1902 (Photo courtesy of Department of Archives and Special Collections, Loma Linda University)
The Isbells, who were devout Christians, helped establish the Union Grove Baptist Church in Columbus. Lottie remained Baptist until 1896 when, at age 20, she, her sister Mamie, and their mother joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church along with two of Lottie’s aunts.4
Advanced education
Lottie had just completed a two-year teachers’ training course and was planning to teach in the same public schools in which she had been educated. However, her conversion launched her onto an extraordinary path of medical missionary service. Her new church family recognized her exceptional gifts and intellect, and she accepted their advice to study at the Adventist Nurses’ Training School at the Battle Creek Sanitarium in Michigan.5 After enrolling in 1896, Lottie, along with other students, lived in the home of the well-known physician and head of Battle Creek Sanitarium, John Harvey Kellogg. Kellogg recognized Lottie’s potential and mentored her.6 When she completed the nursing program with the intent of becoming a missionary nurse somewhere in Africa, he guided her to study medicine at the American Medical Missionary College in Battle Creek (Adventism’s
